korea :: seoul :: general

[thomas_highstreet]

General discussion thread

-start-

[azn8oi]

barhop heaven. drinks are all the same though.

soju can sometimes be cheaper than water.

cigarettes are plentiful.

i like this town as a vacation place.

[thomas_highstreet]

so whuts up with the homo hill? asian bears?

haha .. on the serious.. what areas of seongbukgu are worth living/checking out (ill be at kookmin university in jeongneungdong)?

it looks like ill just find a love-pad in hongdae/sinchon, but cant decide

[dismalfuture]

T, how much can you spend on rent and how many months are you gonna stay exactly? Your choices for apts are limited to 12 month leases, 3 month leases, or finagling your own contract out of them (tougher)... You gotta put up a deposit almost everywhere and those are going up because landlords are finding it hard to speculate on your $5000 and nowadays need $10K from you if they're gonna do anything, so city-wide, the general entry level 12-month one-room is 5,000,000W deposit/500-700,000W per month plus utilities. Those three-monthers can be had for like 800,000W/800,000W up to 1 mil/1 mil+ depending on location (many are in Kangnam, some in Seongbuk-gu, very rarely in Shinchon but they do exist)... You've got to be careful about putting up your own money for those deposits as well, it's a complete leap of faith and getting it back once your cash is in someone else's hands can be any combination of blood, sweat, and tears. My advice is to be a little pushy at first, see if the atelier would take care of it for ya and sponsor that, and twist a few arms so it ends up being Korean people giving Korean people money on faith. You'd be surprised at what Koreans pull out of their savings, many also have spare apartments across town. Go rub some people the right way for favors if you can, then make up for it with work effort, that is probably safer than dealing with the real estate clusterfuck in Seoul...

I do know of one apt building over there in that area and it's super nice and capacious for what it is, though it's a bit more expensive than what most people pay (think $1000/month, but he asks for 2 months rent as his deposit, which is unheard of and low in Korea). The upside being that the landlord over there is a good honest guy, has lived in America before and is cool with renting and making contracts with foreigners, would probably give you the time period you want, and has returned deposits to my friends who've rented from him. I'd live there if I was going back to Seoul myself, PM if you're interested... In Dongdaemun-gu BTW, that one, but on the edge more near Seongbuk-gu Chung (between Hansung Uni and Sungshin W. Uni subway stops...)

Seongbuk-gu is a weird mashup of the super rich/super poor. The northwestern side of Seongbuk-gu is the hill, Seongbuk-dong, Seoul's equivalent of Azabu or Hiroo or something, it's the embassy residences/rich gated residentials. They have to use the same roads as everyone else to come down their hill and get into town, so it's pretty common to walk through the shittier Dongsomun-dong or Bomun-dong, all the way up past Sungshin or Jungneung and feel like it's pretty dismal, but then look out on the street and see Maybachs and Flying Spurs buzz past you.

This guy (off yourboyhood) is a Dongsomun-dong fixture, in the warmer weather he will switch back to his hot pink running top and shorts and pull around a cart with bric a brac. You will see him at least once, so post back here when you do.

One thing, about this stretch that starts at Hansung and follows the light blue line (line #4) out of town through Sungshing, Mia, etc, is that there aren't many local eats. You have to tend to go back into town (at least down to Hyehwa) for that unless you're keen on rice and red pepper sauce 3X a day or MacDiddlies (rare). Koreans wouldn't be able make a proper sandwich if it meant their life, I starved most of the time I lived in Seongbuk-gu and got all my nutrition from draught Cass.

Homo Hill, next installment

[dizzhizz]

Koreans wouldn't be able make a proper sandwich if it meant their life, I starved most of the time I lived in Seongbuk-gu and got all my nutrition from draught Cass.

You don't like them sweet pickles, ketchup and corn in your sandwiches?!

[thomas_highstreet]

haha fuck man. it completely depends on if i can get some sort of cash coming in whilst im out ther. i wanna work at daily projects. i mean, i might have work with youknowwho, but not sure if its gonna be payed for the first while.

otherwise ill have to head to 'watts on tap' or a similarly naff themed or ozzie bar.

this guy from yourboyhood?? you mean like some sorta hobo? hong sukwoo? or one of his 'grandpa photos' photo subjects?

are there any 'host bars' that take whiteys as sexyboyz?

[dizzhizz]

Text message from Galleria Department Store the other day...

NEIL BARRETT

February 23, 2008

Grand Open

Galleria East 3F

Prices should be downright scary. Other notable/sufu approved brands within the department store.

Dior Homme

Galleria West 1F

APC

Galleria West 4F

Prices are outrageous in here but the girls shopping in here are smoking hot.

[dizzhizz]

are there any 'host bars' that take whiteys as sexyboyz?

Definitely so. I will show you the light upon your arrival. Just bring lots of money.

[thomas_highstreet]

DOUBLE YES

to that galeria mall thing, and - dizz - i mean, ill be the host, not them! like.. sexyboy4rent4u

also -

TRIPPLE YES

[dismalfuture]

Haha, yeah give Daily an application. I've never seen a white person as shop staff in Korea, so don't hope for much and be realistic, but you never know. Korean jobs pay nothing, so you're probably left to let people hit you up on the street and subway for English lessons on the sly, which you can probably make $30/hr off. Your only real employment option there it looks like, that or a little part-time classroom teaching on the sly. Korean minimum wage is 3500W, approx 1.50-75GBP, BTW. Late-shift (as in 12-6am) bartenders make like 4,000W/hr no tips in Korea, and the bar owner might pay your taxi fare home or buy your dinner after closing if they're friendly and like you, but that is not mandatory for them.

I went through this period where I was super bored and doing nothing in the days besides sleeping off hangovers til 4, so there was this time I was begging the girls at APC to get me a job at the Galleria (so i could cop discount MMM and stand around and dress young Apku housewives all day), but no dice. Those kids in retail dont make enough to really buy anything at the stores they work at, unfortunately for them, but the staff discount is alright comparatively.

Watts on Tap?? haha... where'd you dig up that one? One of the unfortunately (far too) numerous Canadian-owned bars... I don't know what it is about Canadians and their seeming need to open small sleepy bars in Seoul like it's some sort of frontier, but Americans and Brits just haven't gotten into that racket. Canadians are to be avoided, particularly in Korea.

Yeah that old dude in the anorak is one of the random grandpa subjects he must've snapped, but I used to see him around all the time. Hong must live in the highrise apts with mommy and daddy in Gireum and go down to Chungdam everyday, judging by his photos.

Funny thing about Seongbuk-gu (was reminded by the picture of that kid on yourboyhood crossing the street in his Younghoon Elementary School uniform) and most places with big residential populations in Seoul is that nowadays if you need to ask somebody something on the street, chances are that kids under 15 are the people who are likely to speak near-fluent English, unfortunately they have no idea where the fuck they're going either since they're mindless robots. People over 15 nowadays, hit and miss with their English.

I once had the same woman cabby twice this past Spring, two days in the row, and it wasn't til the last 5 minutes of the second day's taxi ride after fumbling through some conversation with her in my less than stellar Korean that she suddenly broke out in perfect English, including proper slang usage. Fuckin bitch, haha.

[dizzhizz]

That Ann D. store is quite something! Definitely worth checking out!

http://blog.naver.com/designmecca?Redirect=Log&logNo=120045933015

Right across the street is a place called Cesia Celia, great for milkshakes and homemade deserts. Its quite decent actually.

[dizzhizz]

DOUBLE YES

to that galeria mall thing, and - dizz - i mean, ill be the host, not them! like.. sexyboy4rent4u

TRIPPLE YES

http://seoul.craigslist.co.kr/

go post in the erotic services with a pic...cock and ankle stacking should be included.

[thomas_highstreet]

riiiighhtt... so s.korea hasnt developed a basic human rights bill yet then. :S £1.50 an hour is fucking ridiculous man. like actually criminally insane.

100hours of graft for a pair of diors? and not even the MIJz!! hahaha..

funnily enough, watts on tap ppl had a blinding little shack rental in hongdae, like .35 a month!! it was pretty dodgey looking, but at that price for a private place sounded pretty good!! no deposit either.

alot of those links you gave me before turned up some really good resource - aprtments and so on. ill most probably rent off another foreigner-orientated landlord or even foreigner whos gone back to X for a while.

must be some sub-par chubbies with rich dads about that will hook me up a place though too haha just kidding.

its a shame you wont be out there [?] - sounds like wed get along well

[dismalfuture]

Text message from Galleria Department Store the other day...

NEIL BARRETT

February 23, 2008

Grand Open

Galleria East 3F

Prices should be downright scary. Other notable/sufu approved brands within the department store.

gee, thanks Galleria, for opening yet another store 3 years after I'd want something from it.

More Sufu-ready labels in the Galleria:

MMM

Jil

Versase

Rick Ownz

Zucca

CDG

Viv

Goyard

Steven Alan

Buying a bit from each store at Korean retail would mean forfeiting your unborn children's college educations.

[thomas_highstreet]

http://seoul.craigslist.co.kr/

go post in the erotic services with a pic...cock and ankle stacking should be included.

sorry to get all innocent, but whats ankle stacking?

and do people really use craiglist? like rich ex-models and shit?

ahhaha:o

[dismalfuture]

riiiighhtt... so s.korea hasnt developed a basic human rights bill yet then. :S £1.50 an hour is fucking ridiculous man. like actually criminally insane.

100hours of graft for a pair of diors? and not even the MIJz!! hahaha..

funnily enough, watts on tap ppl had a blinding little shack rental in hongdae, like .35 a month!! it was pretty dodgey looking, but at that price for a private place sounded pretty good!! no deposit either.

alot of those links you gave me before turned up some really good resource - aprtments and so on. ill most probably rent off another foreigner-orientated landlord or even foreigner whos gone back to X for a while.

must be some sub-par chubbies with rich dads about that will hook me up a place though too haha just kidding.

its a shame you wont be out there [?] - sounds like wed get along well

Human Rights in Asia? BAHAHA.

You're right, the mini wage to +++19cm-MIJ relation is a good way of thinking about it. Walking down the street in all your beasty gear and looking fly in Seoul usually means breaking necks, Korean kids calculate in their heads the pricetags off your clothes and put a total price on you mentally before letting you walk by. You will probably see a couple overweight bitchy teenagers with bad complexions in Dior Homme head to toe sitting on the benches in front of the Galleria trying to act cool, they are the Korean equivalent of Hedior.

If you can get sorted with that place at 35 man a month, hop on it with the quickness. Cheaper than anything else you might possibly get for a private non-shared place. All places in Korea from the top to bottom of society are fucking SHACKS dude and cost a fortune, so quality is not the first concern there.

[dizzhizz]

^^

I think they got some Philip Lim in the 4F as well in that west wing next to the Westwood shop too...

Hyundai Department Store (Apkujung branch)

-Lanvin

2F

-Maison Martin Margiela

2F

-Dries Van Noten

2F

The milk bingsoo up on the way top is fucking gnarly. Ahjumas galore yo.

[dizzhizz]

You will probably see a couple overweight bitchy teenagers with bad complexions in Dior Homme head to toe sitting on the benches in front of the Galleria trying to act cool, they are the Korean equivalent of Hedior.

That was too funny. Its most likely fake Dior too. As of recent, I've been seeing a shitload of people sporting Dior sneaks. Sad thing is that they're all fake.

[dizzhizz]

and do people really use craiglist? like rich ex-models and shit?

ahhaha:o

No, actually the complete opposite. Simply white trash and the occasional naive gyopo.

[thomas_highstreet]

haha.. yeah man wish i jumped on it in time but it was up for rent in like december/jan and im not ther till march - so. yeh...

but every now and then good shit pops up. im sure i can get something!

its a pitty about the price tag neck breaking, i just sold a bunch of my supafly wear to fund my trip!! even the infamous raf boots! ... shit.. i gotta think slick.

p.s. the hedior comparison was hot fiyah

[thomas_highstreet]

dizz, i think your not getting my sarcasm mate

[dismalfuture]

yeah, those fake F/W07 high highs, the velcro Raf jawnz in canvas, and these new RICKOWEN are blowing up. 50K a pop at Dongdaemun.

We were over there real close last summer to Hyundai, but I can't remember the last time I went in that store. I spent my summer at old Hyundai apts next door ike 8 years ago and was in that store all time, they had lots of pastel golf clothes and 'Lo back then. I met my older brother Jang Dong Gun in there signing autographs for Yezac sportshirts one day, haha. I didn't know they had Margiela, the manager (I think she is) at the Galleria MMM outpost is sexy and treats me right when I go in though.

[dizzhizz]

No Shit Sherlock!

[dizzhizz]

The girls at APC told me that prices for raw denim will now be 24만원! What rape prices...and apparently the dude that works there is kimcheegirl's associate but he aint giving discounts so fuck him.

And why are those SAs from Dior Homme a bunch of cunts?! Or is it just me?

[thomas_highstreet]

PM me wher to cop rafe simones?! keep it secret though - i think i just found my way out of prostitution.

[dismalfuture]

24? Hahaha. There used to be that older bird who was always ducking into the changing room with me, I think she ran off to some other store. The dude with the porno stache bowl cut knows kimcheegirl? You need to one up her dizz and pork the skinny girl (Su hyung? i think it is) and cop the mad discountzzz (bringing the price down to approximately US retail)....

Dior Homez people treat everybody like shit, but that is probably because they have to spend all day fitting 40 year old barrel chested pigs who are like 5'6/200lbs in Dior suits and the D&G/Dsquared 'myungpoom-holic' boys in Dior sneakers all day, and nobody ever buys anything. They sell off half their buy at the private pre-sale to stylists (did you get on their text list?) before they even let the public at it. The guy with the little chin patch and the skinnier prettier girl let me look at their stockbook, it's a quick way of shopping with all the prices and stock numbers (usually 1-2 of each size in each piece).

[dismalfuture]

RAF is where, dizz? I forgot...

It was a shame, that first season of Raf for Jil was so overpriced and taxed in Korea that when the sales rolled around, both the Jil flagship store and the Galleria still had their whole buy on the floor well into December... I really wanted that keyhole neck jawn, but it was still like $600 on sale...

[thomas_highstreet]

yeh, that knit is really nice. i loved the whole collection actually. its how id dress every day if i wasnt heading into a studio full of crap and ugly broads.

wait. that mixed with new dries van noten.

ever since i saw some of their high end embroidery work on womenswear ive been having secret fetishistic urges.

[dizzhizz]

24? Hahaha. There used to be that older bird who was always ducking into the changing room with me, I think she ran off to some other store. The dude with the porno stache bowl cut knows kimcheegirl? You need to one up her dizz and pork the skinny girl (Su hyung? i think it is) and cop the mad discountzzz (bringing the price down to approximately US retail)....

QUOTE]

Yes, somehow kimcheegirl knows that dude and won't share the employee discount. The tall skinny chic is still there and looks better than ever, especially with her acne clearing up and wearing the new SS 08 lineup. Definitely hittable from the back for some discount steez.

But still, the fat chubby SA is still the sweetest one there. Overly energetic but she's getting some decent fades on her Standards.

[thomas_highstreet]

hahah thats the gayest thing ive ever read. and also the most heartwarming.

camel toe apc fades.

ok, so, dizz you atually in seoul at moment/march onwards?